When I think of a parade I think of it as the buffet of life rolling down the street. During a parade you see it all and there is something for everyone just like a good buffet. For children there are clowns, funny looking cars, balloons, people on stilts, candy thrown from cars (my kids favorite) and different animals like horses city kids don’t normally, especially walking down the street. For adults there are cool looking old cars, bands (my favorite) floats, and then of course you can add all the things kids like, adults like em too.

I go to four parades every year almost without fail. They are all different and all have there good points. One is in the spring, one is at the end of the summer and then there are two Christmas parades. The Christmas parade has something to offer none of the others do.

The Christmas parade in my home town is short. That comes in very handy when you are wrestling with an 18 month old, but that is another devotional all together. My favorite aspect of this parade, other than it being short, is that it is at night. So what is a normal parade turns special because of all the Christmas lights on the trucks, cars and floats in the parade. It really makes it nice. Your going to figure out real fast I like Christmas and I like Christmas lights.

There is one other thing I noticed last night about my hometown parade that I like; it’s the smiles. As I stood there in the cool night with my three youngest children by my side I noticed the smiles. My children were doing there normal parade thing collecting candy and all kinds of literature to be read by adults later. But as I watched I noticed that during this parade unlike all the others people were looking right at me. They were saying Merry Christmas, they sang happy songs about the birth of Christ and in general they smiled more than at other parades.

Now there are a great many churches that participate in this parade. They represent a wide spectrum of the religious community. Like a good buffet there is plenty of different denominations to choose from. They all have something to different to offer. Each had there good points, all were theologically okay but the ones that I enjoyed the most were the ones who gave me a smile and presented a message of hope.

Christmas is about a smile. We as Christians can get too hung on sharing Christ with the world that we forget that they have plenty of choices of which to follow but they all have the same need. They and we all need hope and it can start with a simple smile.

We think this Christianity is serious business, and it is, but if we can’t put a smile on our face then really what do we have to offer. I am not talking about some fake smile that covers up the pain inside. I am talking about a smile that says I am just like you, struggling, but I have hope. Hope is the greatest gift of Christmas. Maybe it has been a bad year for you; you can look to Christmas, the miracle of the virgin birth of our Savior and have hope. Maybe you have suffered loss or maybe the situation seems hopeless you can look to the scriptures and find an angel that says, ‘all things are possible with God.’

In the parade of life there are people out there that are waiting for the normal; the people rushing by trying to give you the gospel in two minutes, the lights that brighten up your life for just a moment and then are out of sight, or the superhero Christian covering up an inside that is not so superhero.

I say lets give them something on the buffet they really need; the hope of Christ. It can all get started with eye contact and a smile.